Boise State Pro Day: CB Taylor, RB Harper fight for attention

Boise State cornerback Jamar Taylor cemented his rise up NFL draft boards Thursday with a crisp position workout and outstanding time in the 60-yard shuttle on pro day.

Taylor, who has emerged as a likely second-round or possibly late first-round pick, previously excelled at the Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine.

He's 5-foot-11, 192 pounds with no obvious hole in his resume. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds at the combine and blew through the 60 shuttle on Thursday in 10.91 seconds.

"He just keeps working his way up," an NFL scout who attended pro day on Boise State's campus told the Idaho Statesman.

Taylor, whose offseason program included summer footwork drills in the sand at a local park, showed the result of that work during a position workout run by Boise State defensive backs coach Jimmy Lake.

"I felt like one drill was kind of rough but everything else I feel pretty confident in," Taylor said. "The important thing was footwork, because that's football. ... As a corner, you need to show your feet and your hips."

He hasn't relaxed as his stock has risen. He didn't get his first All-Mountain West award until this past season and wasn't considered an elite draft prospect by many until the past month or so.

"People still put me behind other guys, which I feel like is kind of disrespectful because I feel like me and Jerrell (Gavins) are two of the best corners if not the best in the nation," Taylor said, referencing his Boise State teammate. "I said that at the beginning of the year and I'm still standing by it. I feel like we're still being disrespected a lot coming from Boise State."

-- Boise State's other combine invitee, tailback D.J. Harper, ran the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle, 60-yard shuttle and three-cone drill at pro day to improve his times. He did that across the board -- posting times that would have finished in the top six among running backs at the combine.

He lowered his 40 time from 4.52 seconds (tied for sixth at the combine) to 4.45 (would have been third).

"My 40 time was top six among running backs and the other numbers were solid as well (at the combine)," Harper said, "but I knew personally I could do better because at my (training) facility I had done better and even here I had done better, so I might as well redo it, improve those times and look a little better."

-- Nine other former Broncos participated on pro day. The most impressive of that group was fullback Dan Paul, who weighed 262 pounds, jumped 37.5 inches, did 30 reps on the bench press and ran the 40 in 4.76 seconds.